These are memoirs that tell an entire story in only six words. I was nervous about having my student’s try this because I wasn’t sure if they would get it and be able to think of their own. I showed them examples from the book (see below) and then made some of my own examples. I showed them how I brainstormed my ideas, and then edited to get it to say just what I wanted. I then gave the students a planning sheet and let them loose- well they wowed me!

They created such amazing six word memoirs. Some were funny, sad, powerful, light, deep… they had them all!!!! I had them write their six word memoir on large notecards and then illustrate or color them to fit the tone of the memoir. I put them up on a bulletin board and they loved looking at everyone’s memoirs! Some wrote more than one, and some have been doing them “for fun!” 🙂

Since we are in the middle of a huge winter cold freeze and lots of snow, I thought I would share a short create writing activity that you can do with your class.

I recently read to my students, Snowmen at Night. It is a neat book about snowmen that come alive at night and the adventures that they have. After the students llisten to the story, I give them a choice of various writing activities that they can do. I then have them share it with the class.

Here is an example of my activities:

TALK IT UP!

Create a dialogue between snowmen/ snowwomen about how to keep their late night fun a secret from humans.

EXTRA, EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Create a news report. You can use your own winter ideas or use the article heading: Snowman seen running around town!

WHAT IF?

Take your snowman on a journey through the seasons! What if a snowman/ snowwoman was alive all year long? What would you have to teach him/ her about since he/ she is only used to cold weather? What activities would he/ she love to partake in?

TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY!

Create a debate between a snowman and the sun or winter and summer. Give reasons why they don’t like the other.

SING A SONG!

Create a song about snow, cold, snowman, winter or anything related. You can write it to the tune of a Christmas song, or take lyrics from a popular song and change them to fit your topic.

CONVINCE ME!

Have a snowman/ snowwoman persuade a kid to help keep him/ her alive and not let him/ her melt.

MY LIFE!

Write a story from the perspective of a snowman/ snowwoman. Tell us about the good and difficult times in the life of a snowman/snowwoman.

POETRY TIME!

Brainstorm words related to winter to create a poem. Some types of poems you may want to choose are: free verse, two voice, This is Just to Say, Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Blackbird, limerick etc..

YOUR CHOICE

If you want to take a topic from a square and pick a different genre than listed you may.

Interest journals are a neat way for students to share their writing with others for years to come. How does it work, you ask? Well, interest journals are simple to set up, yet provide a neat audience and it allows you to shake up your writing sparks (journal writing) time.

Here’s how I set them up: I got about 35 journals when they were on sale at the beginning of the year. I always like to have a few more than students I have. I label each journal with a broad topic. When the students come in, the journals are spread out all over the room. I review the topics with them and then have them go and find the journal they are interested in. When they sit down to write, they can review all the other entries on that topic by students whom I’ve had in the past, and by some of their classmates from interest journals we’ve done this year.

I give the students a few minutes to browse the other entries and then I have them start writing. When they are done, I make sure that they date and write their name at the end of the post. I like to do interest journals every few weeks, when I feel like we need something fresh.

Some of the topics I have used that my students have loved: shoes, life, being a teenage, books/movies/music, war/peace, shoes, I hate, I love, vacation/travel, video games, colors, family, sports, holidays, memories, middle school, seasons, goals- the possibilities are endless!

I store the interest journals in a simple clear rubbermaid tub next to the other tubs with their student’s individual journals.

We did a close reading of the poem, Abandoned Farmhouse by Ted Kooser last week. I read the poem aloud, then had the students read it again individually and then hold their thinking and note their observations, thoughts, questions etc.. Then we brok the poem down and looked at the tone of the poem. We found words that stuck out to us that showed the tone (broken, something went wrong,money scarce, winters cold). I had the students wrote the mood down and then find specific lines that supported the mood. We noted how each stanza talked about a different person: a man, woman and child. I had the students go back to the poem and find out specific things we knew about the people in the poem, and list them (the man was tall, the woman liked lilacs, the child played with a tractor etc..). We looked at repetition, figurative language and we discussed specific word choices that the author made.

Although we did a close reading of this poem, the students really did a nice job. They noticed a lot of really interesting things. I liked this poem because we could discuss all of the things I mentioned above and the students were able to understand the poem. They didn’t feel like the content, topic or language was above their heads. It was a manageable length to close read, and It didn’t scare them.

After we read the poem I had my students write a journal prompt about a place where they live, or have things. What would their room, house, or objects say about them. I also showed them this image. I felt this image really went well with the poem. They shared their writing and we all enjoyed a close reading and a writing session.

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Looking for some writing sparks? (Click to check out how I use writing sparks in my classroom here and here).

National Geographic is celebrating 125 years and I found this site where people can submit their pictures. Many of them make some amazing writing prompts. Sometimes I will print a bunch of them out, and have my students go and grab one to write about. Sometimes I’ll scatter a few on their tables, and other times I will show them one and we all write about that one.

Yesterday I used a picture and I gave it a title, and I had my students write about the title, they could take the perspective of one of the people in the picture, or they could be the narrator. They could take a word from the title and write form that. They could write a poem, story, or whatever they wanted. I can’t find the original source of the picture I used yesterday. But I titled it, Is This Happiness? and it was a picture of a bride and groom in the middle of their reception and the bride is not smiling. The people around them were all happy. It was really neat to see what the kids came up with. I’ll work hard to find the picture to share with you.

Try it out with your students. This would make a neat prompt. Challenge your students to personify this frog! “Stayin’ Dry”

I’m back. Life got crazy and busy and blogging HAD to take a back seat. I often thought about things I wanted to share and blog about, but I wasn’t ever able to find the time to sit and write. I am making it a goal to write on this consistently at least once a week. So here we go, hope I have some readers still out there…

I wanted to have my students write short stories. I always have those kids who can just go and write and a story. Then there are the rest of my kids who have no idea, and don’t know where to start and come up blank. To spark their ideas, I decided to get a bunch of wordless picture books from the library. After we talked about the elements of a short story, I gave each group a wordless picture book and some post it notes. I had them come up with the story, and write their story on the post it notes. The students could stick the post it notes write on the pages, or they could put them on paper to something like a storyboard. When they were done, we made sure that the stories they wrote had all of the elements that we had discussed.

After we shared the group stories, I then placed other Worldess picture books around the room and let them walk around and see if a book sparked their interest or spark an idea. They then took the book back to their desk and used it to help them rite their story.

Overall I thought it helped some kids come up with an idea of what to write about. Some students wrote a story on the entire book, and others just took a page or two and wrote from that. I liked having the students come up with a story together before they started writing their own stories. It helped them generate ideas, but it also made them talk together, listen to each other’s ideas and share their thoughts ( A Common Core Speaking and listening Standard! 🙂 )